Selecting Broadband Connectivity for Your School

The purpose of this document is to offer some guidance to school leaders and technical managers on what to look for when considering a new broadband connection for their school or group of schools.

Broadband and, more generally, a connection to the Internet is now an essential service for schools. Decisions on the type, level of bandwidth required and supplier are critical ones that will have a huge impact on the ability of a school to meet its educational and other objectives for years to come.  As such, it is one that the Senior Management Team (SMT) must fully engage with.

The NEN management summary guidance is broken into several sections which provide a framework to help the SMT and technical manager collect the information necessary to make an informed decision. The main sections are:

  • The School Development Plan
  • Current usage
  • What technologies are appropriate
  • What to expect from a supplier
  • The Local Full Fibre Network government initiative
  • Conclusion

The audience for the full advice is primarily whoever supplies technical support to the school – this may be the internal IT team, a third-part support company or the Local Authority. The “Advice for Teachers” document is a less technical summary of the full guidance. The management summary is for the Senior Management Team and provides a single page overview of the issues.

 

NEN-Broadband Advice – Management Summary

 

NEN-Broadband Advice – Full

 

NEN-Broadband Advice for Teachers